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On this day: April 9

2012: The stage musical "The Lion King" becomes the highest grossing Broadway show of all time, overtaking "Phantom of the Opera," with $853.8 million in box office earnings.

2011: Sidney Lumet, the Oscar-nominated director of movies such as "12 Angry Men," "Dog Day Afternoon," "Network" and "The Verdict," dies of lymphoma at the age of 86 in Manhattan, N.Y. Lumet's seen here posing with his honorary Oscar at the 77th annual Academy Awards in 2005.

2009: Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart is killed shortly after midnight in a car accident by a drunken driver in Fullerton, Calif., just hours after being the starting pitcher in the previous night's game. The driver of the car Adenhart was in and another passenger also died in the crash. Andrew Thomas Gallo was later convicted of three counts of second-degree murder, two counts of driving under the influence causing great bodily injury, and one felony count of hit-and-run and sentenced to 51 years to life in prison. The Angels and the minor league Salt Lake Bees, who Adenhart pitched for in most of the 2008 season, suspended their next games after his death.

2005: Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles get married in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall, a town hall in Windsor, England. They are seen here leaving St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle following a blessing of their marriage later in the day.

2003: Baghdad, Iraq, falls to American forces. The iconic image of the day is a statue of Saddam Hussein being toppled as Iraqis turn on symbols of their former leader, pulling down the statue and tearing it to pieces.

2001: American Airlines' parent company acquires bankrupt Trans World Airlines. TWA, once one of the largest domestic airlines, would fly its last flight before officially becoming part of American Airlines on Dec. 1, 2001.

2001: Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Stargell dies of complications related to a stroke at the age of 61 in Wilmington, N.C. Over his 21-year career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Stargell batted .282, with 2,232 hits, 423 doubles, 475 home runs and 1,540 runs batted in, helping his team capture six National League East division titles, two National League pennants and two World Series.

1998: Actress Elle Fanning, the younger sister of fellow actress Dakota Fanning best known for her roles in "Super 8" and "We Bought a Zoo," is born in Conyers, Ga.

1997: A&M Records issues a press release stating that the members of Soundgarden have mutually and amicably decided to disband. After several years working on projects and other bands, the grunge band would reunite in 2010 and release their first album in 16 years with 2012's "King Animal."

1992: A U.S. Federal Court finds former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega guilty of drug and racketeering charges. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison in September 1992, a sentence that was later reduced to 30 years. He served 17 years in prison, including time awaiting trial, before being released for good behavior on Sept. 9, 2007, but was extradited to France for another four-year prison stay. He is now serving a 20-year sentence in Panama for human rights violations committed during his regime.

1990: Actress Kristen Stewart, best known for her roles in the "Twilight Saga" movies and "Snow White and the Huntsman," is born in Los Angeles, California.

1988: Dave Prater (right) of the soul singing duo Sam & Dave dies at the age of 50 when his car leaves the highway near Sycamore, Ga., and hits a tree. Sam & Dave, whose hits included "Soul Man," "Hold On, I'm Coming" and "I Thank You," were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

1986: Actress and singer Leighton Meester, best known for the TV series "Gossip Girl," is born in Fort Worth, Texas. She has also had roles in the movies "Country Strong," "The Roommate" and "Monte Carlo."

1984: At the 56th Academy Awards, Linda Hunt wins an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her "The Year of Living Dangerously" role of male Chinese-Australian photographer Billy Kwan (pictured), becoming the first actor to win an Oscar for playing a character of the opposite sex. The night's big winner was "Terms of Endearment," which won five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director for James L. Brooks, Best Actress for Shirley MacLaine and Best Supporting Actor for Jack Nicholson.

1981: The U.S. Navy nuclear submarine USS George Washington surfaces underneath the Japanese cargo ship Nissho Maru, which sinks in 15 minutes, killing two crewmen. The U.S. Navy accepted responsibility for the incident, and relieved and reprimanded the George Washington's commanding officer and officer of the deck.

1979: Actress Keshia Knight Pulliam, best known for playing Rudy Huxtable on the sitcom "The Cosby Show," is born in Newark, N.J.

1976: American protest singer Phil Ochs commits suicide by hanging at the age of 35 in Far Rockaway, N.Y. Ochs, who wrote hundreds of songs in the 1960s and released eight albums in his lifetime, became known for his performances at political events, including anti-Vietnam War and civil rights rallies, student events, and organized labor events over the course of his career.

1974: Actress and model Jenna Jameson, who got her start in pornographic films and has since crossed over into mainstream pop culture with roles in movies like "Private Parts" and guest starring turns on television, is born Jenna Marie Massoli in Las Vegas, Nev.

1969: The "Chicago Eight" plead not guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Ill. The eight eventually became seven when Black Panther Party activist Bobby Seale's case was severed from the rest. On Feb. 18, 1970, all seven defendants (Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, and Lee Weiner) were found not guilty.

1969: Bob Dylan's album "Nashville Skyline" is released. The album, which saw Dylan fully immerse himself into country rock, would reach No. 3 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart.

1967: The first Boeing 737 makes its maiden flight. The 737, which has been continuously manufactured by Boeing since then, has since become the best-selling jet airliner in aviation history, with 7,865 delivered and more than another 3,680 orders yet to be fulfilled as of the end of 2013.

1966: Actress Cynthia Nixon, best known for playing Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series "Sex and the City" and its two movie adaptations, is born in New York City.

1965: Model and actress Paulina Porizkova is born in Prost?jov, Czechoslovakia. In 1984, she became the first woman from Central Europe to be on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. The following year she became the second woman, after Christie Brinkley, to be featured on the swimsuit issue's cover consecutive times. In 1988, Porizkova won what was then the highest-paying modeling contract, a $6 million contract with Estée Lauder cosmetics, staying the face of the company until 1995.

1965: The Houston Astrodome opens as the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium, with an exhibition game between the Astros and the New York Yankees. Judy Garland and The Supremes performed before the game, with President Lyndon Johnson in attendance. Yankees' slugger Mickey Mantle hit the stadium's first home run in the game.

1962: "West Side Story" dominates the 34th Academy Awards, winning 10 out of its 11 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress. The only Oscar the film was nominated for that it lost was Best Adapted Screenplay, won by "Judgment at Nuremberg."

1959: Architect Frank Lloyd Wright, a leader of the Prairie School movement of architecture and the designer of buildings such as Fallingwater and the Guggenheim Museum, dies at the age of 91 while undergoing surgery in Phoenix, Ariz., to remove an intestinal obstruction. Wright is often considered the greatest American architect of all time.

1959: NASA announces the selection of the United States' first seven astronauts, quickly dubbed the "Mercury Seven" by the news media. Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton were chosen from 110 applicants for Project Mercury, NASA's effort to see if humans could survive in space. On May 5, 1961, Shepard would become the first American in space.

1957: Following the Suez Crisis, the Suez Canal in Egypt is cleared and opens to shipping. The canal had been partially obstructed by ships sunk by the order of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser after Israeli forces invaded the Sinai Peninsula.

1954: Actor Dennis Quaid, best known for movies such as "Breaking Away," "The Right Stuff," "Great Balls of Fire," "The Big Easy," "Innerspace," "Postcards from the Edge" and "Far From Heaven," is born in Houston, Texas.

1947: The Journey of Reconciliation, the first interracial Freedom Ride, begins through the upper South in violation of Jim Crow laws. The two-week journey by 16 men was aimed at forcing enforcement of the U.S. Supreme Court's 1946 decision banning racial segregation in interstate travel and inspired the later Freedom Rides of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.

1942: American and Filipino forces surrender on the Bataan Peninsula after spending three months fighting Japanese forces that had invaded the Philippines. After the battle was over, more than 60,000 Filipino and 15,000 American prisoners of war were forced into the infamous Bataan Death March, a 80-mile march characterized by wide-ranging physical abuse and murder of thousands of POWs.

1940: Early in World War II, Germany invades Denmark and Norway in Operation Weserübung. The Germans defended the move as preemptive effort to protect the countries' neutrality from a Franco-British attack and occupation.

1939: Michael Learned, best known for her three-time Emmy-winning role as Olivia Walton on TV series "The Waltons," is born in Washington, D.C.

1937: Television producer Marty Krofft, best known for pairing with his older brother, Sid Krofft, to produce children's television shows in the 1970s and '80s, is born in Montréal, Québec, Canada. Sid and Marty Krofft were best known for shows such as "H.R. Pufnstuf," "Sigmund and the Sea Monsters" and "Land of the Lost." Marty Krofft is seen here speaking as he and his brother accept a Pop Culture award at the seventh annual TV Land Awards in Los Angeles on April 19, 2009.

1932: Singer-songwriter and guitarist Carl Perkins, best known for rockabilly hits like "Blue Suede Shoes," "Boppin' the Blues," "Dixie Fried" and "Your True Love," is born in Tiptonville, Tenn. He died of throat cancer at age 65 on Jan. 19, 1998.

1928: Mae West makes her New York City debut in a daring new play "Diamond Lil." The play, about a racy woman in the 1890s, was her first major Broadway success and was the basis for her character in her second movie, the 1933 film "She Done Him Wrong."

1926: Hugh Hefner, who founded Playboy magazine in 1953, is born in Chicago, Ill.

1926: Zip the Pinhead, a freak show performer who became famous for his tapered head, dies at the age of 84 in New York City. Born William Henry Johnson, he was a big draw for P.T. Barnum's American Museum and also traveled extensively with the Ringling Brothers circus.

1913: The Brooklyn Dodgers' Ebbets Field opens. The stadium would serve as the Dodgers' home through the 1957 season, when the team moved to Los Angeles. It was demolished in 1960.

1905: The first aerial ferry bridge in the United States goes into operation in Duluth, Minn. The bridge, which featured a gondola capable of transporting people and vehicles across a canal, was one of only two ever built in the U.S. It was upgraded in 1929-30 to a vertical lift bridge, with the central span rising up and down to let boats pass underneath, and continues to operate today.

1903: Actor Ward Bond, known for the Western TV series "Wagon Train" and for supporting roles in movies such as "The Searchers," "The Quiet Man," "It Happened One Night," "It's a Wonderful Life," "The Maltese Falcon," "Bringing Up Baby," "Gone with the Wind," "Rio Bravo" and "The Grapes of Wrath," is born in Benkelman, Neb. Bond is seen here alongside John Wayne, with whom he made 23 movies with, in 1951's "Operation Pacific." He died of a heart attack at age 57 on Nov. 5, 1960.

1898: Actor, singer, football player and social activist Paul Robeson is born in Princeton, N.J. Robeson became a football All-American and the class valedictorian at Rutgers University and went on to play in the NFL while attending Columbia Law School. At Columbia, he became a participant in the "Harlem Renaissance" with performances in stage productions "The Emperor Jones" and "All God's Chillun Got Wings." Robeson became an international cinematic star in roles in "Show Boat," "Bosambo" and "Sanders of the River," but turned his focus to civil rights, becoming politically involved in response to the Spanish Civil War, fascism and social injustices. He died of complications of a stroke at age 77 on Jan. 23, 1976.

1898: Earl "Curly" Lambeau, a founder, player and first coach of the Green Bay Packers football team, is born in Green Bay, Wis. Lambeau, who was inducted as part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's inaugural class in 1963, shares the distinction with rival George Halas of the Chicago Bears of coaching his team to the most NFL championships, with six.

1866: The U.S. Congress overrides President Andrew Johnson's veto of the Civil Rights Bill, which granted citizenship to freed slaves. The action represented the first time Congress overrode a presidential veto in American history. The 14th Amendment was later designed to put the key provisions of the Civil Rights Act into the U.S. Constitution.

1865: Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia to Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Va., effectively ending the Civil War. The signing of the surrender documents occurred in the parlor of a house owned by Wilmer McLean, seen here.

1860: On his phonautograph machine, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville makes the oldest known recording of an audible human voice.

1682: Robert Cavelier de La Salle discovers the mouth of the Mississippi River, claims it for France and names the area Louisiana in honor of Louis XIV.

1626: Philosopher and scientist Sir Francis Bacon, whose work helped establish and popularize inductive methodologies for scientific inquiry, often called the Baconian method, or simply the scientific method, dies of pneumonia at the age of 65 in London, England.

1413: Henry V is crowned King of England.

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